Cole Palmer shines as Chelsea beat Newcastle 3-2 at Stamford Bridge
Chelsea limped to a 3-2 win over Newcastle United at Stamford Bridge, with attacking midfielder Cole Palmer playing a starring role in the Premier League clash.
The former Manchester City attacker was the brightest player in Chelsea’s forward line, looking to create danger anytime he had the ball.
Palmer played a pivotal role in the opener. Nicolas Jackson cutely deflected Palmer’s effort beyond Martin Dubravka in the sixth minute following a botched Sven Botman clearance to give the Blues the lead.
Chelsea had an early lead but failed to establish control and dominance. The Magpies caught wind of Chelsea’s complacency and fought to get back into the game.
On 43, Chelsea showed their usual defensive frailties, failing to deal with a ball at the back. Alexander Isak pounced and slotted the ball beyond Djordje Petrovic for the equaliser.
Both sides went into the half-time break level, but the Blues restarted with renewed passion and retook the lead through Palmer. The 21-year-old collected a short pass from Enzo Fernandez before spearing in Chelsea’s second to make it 2-1.
Palmer is now up to 11 goals and eight assists in the league – a fantastic return for the lad in his debut season.
Immediately, Chelsea could have been 3-1 up, but Raheem Sterling wasted a perfect chance to get on the scoresheet with England manager Gareth Southgate watching on.
Mykhailo Mudryk replaced Sterling and scored a stunning goal to ensure the win, but not before Newcastle made it a tentative ending.
Jacob Murphy spun Marc Cucurella too easily before blasting his shot into the back of the net on 89. However, Chelsea held on and secured three points, making it four unbeaten games on the spin in the PL for the first time in over a year. Yikes.
Chelsea sit 11th on the Premier League log (39 points) – a point below the Toons. We have a game in hand and can push up into the top half of the table if we take all three points.
On to the FA Cup quarter-finals on Sunday where we’ll face Championship side Leicester City.